Grass-Fed Brisket… a wonderful dish that I’m eager to share. It makes such a lovely dinner for family and friends, which is how we always have ours. I make it and I invite our most cherished friends and family. Sharing food is one of my favorite things to do, and making a dish with the grass-fed brisket cut of beef makes it an inexpensive (and nutritious) way.
I learned the basics for cooking brisket this way from Cook’s Country, but I couldn’t follow their recipe precisely because it called for cola. Um… gross. So I made my own version, using their technique for prepping and cooking the brisket, with a twist on the ingredients of my own. It turned out unbelievably fantastic.
I call this Sunday Grass-Fed Brisket because the way I made it required being in and out of the kitchen a bit for the day, but an enjoyable experience. Typically this could be made in most homes on a Sunday, as a result, so you can tend to it. Also, Sunday is when many families have big dinners. Sunday Brisket makes a lot of food, perhaps feeding 6 to 8 people. Therefore, either make it and invite everyone over, or make it and eat it for a few days. Or, make it and freeze the leftovers.
I buy my dry-aged, grass-fed, organic beef from Alderspring Ranch. They’re a beautiful company where the rancher, Glenn, sends email updates on the animals that are darn near poetic. I also appreciate their values, one of which is “Absolute Traceability: Each cut is labeled and traceable to a single beef.” I really like Alderspring Ranch.
Recipe: Sunday Grass-Fed Brisket
- 1 (4 to 4.5-pound) grass-fed beef brisket, cut in half (if needed)*
- 1 tablespoon Kosher salt, for seasoning brisket pre-cooking
- 1 to 2 tablespoons organic grass fed ghee – my favorite: Ancient Organics
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds organic red onions, halved and sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 2 cups bone broth (beef stock) – make yours here
- 1 cup organic ketchup – my favorite: Katchkie Farm’s Ketchup**
- 1 cup organic BBQ sauce – my favorite: Katchkie Farm’s Bob-A-Que**
- 2 teaspoons unsulphered molasses
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme – love these Tsp Spices
- 1 teaspoon smoked sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper (<– love this pepper mill)
(the night before) Using a fork, poke holes all over both sides of the brisket. Rub entire surface of brisket with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. If you have a larger cut of brisket, you might need a bit more salt. Wrap brisket in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
(the next morning) Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Pat the brisket dry with paper towels and season with black pepper.
Heat some of the ghee in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just about smoking (I use a Le Creuset). Place the grass-fed brisket fat-side down in the skillet.
Here’s a great tip from Cook’s Country… weigh the brisket down with a heavy Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet. Yes, just put it right on top! To make clean up a bit easier, wrap some aluminum foil around the bottom of your Dutch oven or heavy cast-iron skillet.
Cook the brisket until it is well browned, about 3.5 to 4 minutes. Remove the Dutch oven, flip the brisket, and replace the Dutch oven on top of brisket. Cook the brisket on its second side until well browned, about 3.5 to 4 minutes longer. (If the brisket is smoking or looks like it’s cooking at too high of a temperature, then lower the temperature. As my chef instructor says repeatedly in culinary class, “Use your head.”)
Transfer your brisket to a plate and set aside. (If you had to cut the brisket in half to fit the pan, then repeat the process for the other half, although you might not need extra ghee since there will be some brisket fat rendered.)
Degrease the pan and heat some more ghee in the now-empty skillet over medium-low heat until shimmering. Add the onions (and a pinch of sea salt and pepper), and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown (about 15 to 20 minutes). Transfer the onions to a 13 by 9-inch baking dish and spread into an even layer.
While the onions are cooking, start the sauce. Combine the broth, ketchup, bbq sauce, onion powder, molasses, garlic powder, thyme, smoked sea salt, and some black pepper in a large bowl.
Place the brisket, fat side up, on top of onions and pour the sauce mixture over the brisket. Place parchment paper over brisket and cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until tender and fork easily slips in and out of meat, about 4 hours. Let the brisket rest in liquid, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Cover the brisket again with the parchment and foil. Refrigerate this for a few hours (or overnight if desired, depending on when you’re making this and serving it).
Take brisket out of the refrigerator and slice the brisket against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. If desired, remove some of the hardened fat from the top of the sauce. Return the now-sliced brisket to the baking dish with the sauce. Cover with parchment paper. Then, cover baking dish with aluminum foil, and cook in a 325-degree oven until heated through, about 1 hour or more.
Serve over heavily (grass-fed) buttered mashed potatoes.
* Sometimes my brisket is even bigger. I’m still able to cut it in half and squeeze it into a large glass baking dish keeping the other ingredients the same.
** I haven’t bought ketchup in over a decade. When I learned about Katchkie Farm’s products, I was excited. Here is a quality product with ingredients I can get behind (same goes for their Bob-A-Que sauce). Their Katchkie Ketchup has: Organic Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Onion, Honey, Red Wine Vinegar, Brown Sugar, Jalapeño Pepper, Garlic, Allspice, Salt, Cinnamon, White Pepper. They also have the most wonderful thing called Tomato Jam. Holy moly it’s fun. You can add it to sourdough toast, grass-fed meatloaf, rice, mochi, grass-fed burgers, you name it. I recommend you try all of them.